The Boat Is Full is a 1981 film directed by Markus Imhoof.
The setting is Switzerland during World War II. Switzerland is maintaining a precarious neutrality while being completely surrounded by either Nazi Germany or German-occupied territory. One night, a group of refugees escape from their hiding places on a German train, as it stops at the Swiss border. All but one are Jews. They are:
- Judith Krueger and her younger teenaged brother Olaf Landau. Judith has a non-Jewish husband, Hannes, who is being held in a refugee camp.
- An old man, Lazar Ostrowskij, and his young granddaughter Gitty. Lazar's wife, who was on the train with them, was too slow getting out and is killed by the German border guards.
- A French boy, not quite six, who isn't connected to any of the others.
- The only non-Jewish person in the group is Karl, a German soldier who has deserted.
The six refugees take temporary refuge on the grounds of an inn run by a married couple, Anna and Franz Flueckiger, but are discovered the next morning. Franz immediately alerts Bigler, the local constable. Anna goes to her pastor, who explains that while Switzerland isn't accepting Jewish refugees, they do accept certain specific categories: parents with small children, political refugees, and German deserters. The refugees realize that they will have to lie about who they are in order to gain asylum.
Tropes:
- Bystander Syndrome: The attitude of most of the people in the village. They aren't all raging anti-Semites, but they are almost all indifferent, shrugging their shoulders and telling each other that the rules are the rules, and so the Jews have to go back to Germany.
- Call-Back: Gitty asks Anna for a postcard that she can send home, to tell her loved ones that she has made it to safety. She writes her message and puts a stamp on it. But the card is never mailed, and the Jews are arrested. Towards the end of the film, Anna takes the postcard, soaks it in a bowl of water, and peels off the stamp.
- Downer Beginning: Mrs. Ostrowskij is last off the train, and so she is caught by the Germans. One of the German border guards points at the engine's furnace and says "Do you want to go in head first or feet first?"
- Downer Ending: Everyone but Karl and the boy are sent back to Germany. End titles specify that none of them survived.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Just to make things more sad, it's raining as Judith, Lazar, and Gitty are sent over the bridge at the border, and back into Germany.
- Hand Gagging: The engineer on the train slaps his hand over the French boy's mouth, because the boy was making a lot of noise as the refugees were getting off the train.
- Insane Troll Logic: The Swiss refugee plan. They won't take a Jewish refugee—but they will take a Jewish refugee if she is the mother to a small child. They won't take a Jewish refugee, but they will take a political refugee. Anna points out how absurd it is that the government accepts German deserters, but does not accept the people that the Germans persecute.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Franz. He is hostile when he finds out about the Jews hiding on his property, and he calls the cops immediately. However, he steadily grows more friendly with Judith while the refugees are staying at the end. At the end he tries to help them escape, whisking them away on his motorcycle, but they are caught by a Swiss army patrol and arrested.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: About as dark as this trope gets. The Nazis attempted to force all people in Jewish-Gentile "mixed marriages" to divorce. Hannes and Judith fled the country instead.
- No Name Given: The French boy is never named.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot is Judith, Lazar, and Gitty walking over the bridge into German territory.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Bigler, the policeman who is called in to handle the refugees. He could accept their story and give them asylum. But no, he keeps up a continual stream of Columbo-style needling, picking apart inconsistencies in their story—the French boy who is supposedly deaf and dumb responds to sound; Olaf the supposed Wehrmacht deserter is wearing a uniform too big for him. Finally he unravels their whole story and arrests them all. Anna expresses contempt for Bigler's "smug" manner.
- There's also the guard at the detention facility who refuses to let Hannes and Judith stay in the same cell despite the fact that they are married. When an agitated Hannes asks why, the guard shrugs and says "I didn't make the law, but there must be a reason."
- Say My Name: Hannes screams "JUDITH! JUDITH!", over and over again, after they're separated for the last time at the detention center. He is being sent back to the work camp, while she, a Jew, is being sent back to Germany and death.
- Separated by a Common Language: Anna tells Judith "It's better to ask in Swiss dialect" as Judith is on the phone trying to find out about her husband. Swiss German is a distinct dialect that is quite different from the German spoken in Germany.
- There Is Only One Bed: Discussed and averted. When Judith and Karl, who are supposedly married, are given a room at the inn, Judith puts her bed over in the corner. Karl says that nobody will believe that, as they're supposed to be a married couple, and he pushes the beds together. She takes one look at him and says "There will be no racial mixing!" And there isn't.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Titles at the end specify that Judith and Gitty were gassed in Treblinka, Lazar died during deportation, and Olaf was deported to Germany and disappeared. Franz got a jail sentence for trying to help them escape.
